Company News: Merck, Alltech, Smithfield Foods

The owners of Allflex ear tags and SCR dairy monitoring technology is being acquired by Merck. The acquisition of the Antelliq Group, formerly known as the Allflex Group, was made public on Dec. 14 in a joint press release by Merck and Antelliq. Properties of Antelliq will be wholly owned and separately operated subsidiary within the Merck Animal Health Division.

Merck will make a cash payment of approximately $2.37 billion (2.1 billion euros) to purchase all of Antelliq’s outstanding shares. Merck will also assume Antelliq’s remaining debt which will be repaid after the acquisition closes.

Antelliq is a leader in the digital animal identification, traceability and monitoring solutions category with brands like Allflex and SCR. The company had $407 million (360 million euros) worth of sales for the 12 month period ending Sept. 30, 2018.

SCR was acquired by the Allflex Group through BC Partners in Dec. 2014. Then on Feb. 5, 2018, the group name was changed to Antelliq.

Prior to the transaction closing it will be subject to clearance by antitrust and competition law authorities and other customary closing conditions. The companies expect the deal to close by the second quarter of 2019. Merck was represented by Barclays and Centerview Partners and Antelliq was represented by Goldman Sachs International and Rothschild & Co.

U.S. Farmers Win Trips to ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference

The Alltech #iamAG online agvocacy photo contest showcased the beauty of American agriculture through the eyes of producers, who submitted and shared photos of their farms for the opportunity to win a trip to ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE19), to be held in Lexington, Ky., on May 19–21, 2019.

The submitted photos were posted on Alltech’s Facebook page for public voting. For more information or to register for the ONE, visit one.alltech.com.

Smithfield Foods Adds 250 Jobs in North Carolina with New Distribution Center

Smithfield Foods, Inc. opened a new distribution center in Tar Heel, N.C. Monday, which will create approximately 250 new jobs in the state. Smithfield invested more than $100 million into the over 500,000-square-foot facility, about the size of eight football fields, and its blast cell cold storage capabilities at its processing facility, which will strengthen the company’s supply chain to better serve customers globally.

The new facility features nearly 50,000 pallet positions and has an annual capacity of more than one billion pounds. It will also optimize its transportation and distribution network to lower fuel usage, cut transportation costs and improve delivery times. It is located adjacent to one of the company’s meat processing facilities, which is the largest pork plant in the world, and produces fresh pork products for customers in the U.S. and across the globe.

New employees at the distribution center will join more than 5,000 currently employed at the Tar Heel facility. To learn about Smithfield, visit smithfieldfoods.com.